HOUSTON — Justin Verlander dueled Framber Valdez by means of seven innings Tuesday night time in his Houston homecoming, however ultimately it was his former teammate that bested him.
The Mets fell 4-2 to the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park within the second recreation of a three-game sequence. Verlander, who received his third Cy Young Award as a member of the Astros lower than a 12 months in the past, gave up all 4 runs, persevering with his pattern of following every good begin with a troublesome one.
The Astros took three runs off their former ace within the third inning. A leadoff double, a single and a sacrifice fly gave Houston (40-34) a 1-0 lead. Alex Bregman, a detailed pal of Verlander, swung on a 3-0 fastball and despatched it into the left subject stands for a two-run shot to make it 3-0.
“I know Breggy does his homework,” Verlander stated. “That’s on me, I should have known a little better. I was trying to limit the damage on the big inning by not walking him.”
Verlander (2-4) settled in, shutting down the Astros for the following three innings. He allowed yet one more run within the seventh, however in any other case was efficient. The 4 runs got here on eight hits and the 40-year-old right-hander struck out 5 and walked none.
“A lot of soft contact, except for the ambush on the 3-0. He was solid,” Buck Showalter stated. “Pitching in a sticky, hot night and through other stuff for seven innings. Brigham came in and bent but he gave us a chance. Their shortstop made a couple big plays, even in the last inning when we could have gotten some things going our way. But a well-pitched game. Really well-pitched on both parts.”
It wasn’t his finest begin, but it surely wasn’t his worst. However, it wasn’t precisely the result he had been hoping for throughout an emotional return to town the place he received two World Series championships. Verlander acquired his championship ring Monday and mirrored on his 5 1/2 years with the Astros. He was married a couple of days after successful his first World Series. He turned a dad whereas enjoying for Houston and he revived his profession after Tommy John surgical procedure left many questioning if he would be capable to return.
“I didn’t love it,” Verlander stated of dealing with his former group. “I’m so freshly removed from knowing those guys so well. You try to turn that part of you off and just focus on pitching and attacking those guys. They came out on top.”
Valdez (7-5), a left-hander, no-hit the Mets (34-39) for five 1/3 innings earlier than ultimately going eight. The Mets had bother choosing up the spin on his pitches.
“He’s got four above-average pitches and I think it’s really difficult to recognize spin off of him,” Showalter stated. “That’s why you see some good hitters swinging at pitches where your first thought is, why are they swinging at that pitch? The spin is so tight on it but there’s a lot of late recognition of that pitch and you don’t have much time. I think that’s something people miss about him is how late the recognition of spin is on his two breaking balls.”
Mark Canha broke up the no-hitter with an infield single. The Mets had no reply for him till the eighth, after they scored twice to chop the Astros lead in half. Tommy Pham led off with a single to increase his hitting streak to 6 video games. A double by Francisco Alvarez put him on third base, in place to attain on Canha’s fly ball two batters later. A line drive to middle subject by Eduardo Escobar scored Alvarez.
Valdez was environment friendly in limiting the Mets to 2 earned runs on 4 hits whereas strolling one and hanging out 9. The Mets didn’t have many baserunners to start with and solely left two on in opposition to him.
“He’s got two pitches he throws extremely well, a 96 MPH sinker and a tough cutter,” stated second baseman Jeff McNeil. “He kind of throws it down the middle and lets the sinker kind of go up and in and the slider go down and away. As a hitter, that’s tough. You see it down the middle and you’ve kind of got to choose one or the other.”
Right-hander Jeff Brigham received out of a bases-loaded jam within the eighth inning to maintain the Mets within the recreation. But right-hander Ryan Pressly retired the facet so as within the ninth to work his thirteenth save.
“This is competition,” Verlander stated. “They feel good about it, but I don’t.”
()
Source: www.bostonherald.com